Terry Sawchuk is a 36-year-old goalkeeper for the Toronto Maple Leafs. A professional make-up artist and a doctor have recreated some of the more than 400 stitches he got while playing in the National Hockey League for 16 years.
Terry Sawchuk’s face was hit many times, although not all at once. His cuts and bruises recovered. The scars were hard to notice, except for a couple of them. They made a replica of his injuries to show how bad they were over a period of years.
Sawchuk experienced further injuries that aren’t seen here: a cut eyeball that needed three stitches, a 70% loss of function in his right arm because 60 bone chips were taken out of his elbow, and a chronic “sway-back” from always being hunched over.
This well-known picture, sadly, didn’t tell half of Sawchuk’s tale. He was a profoundly disturbed man off the ice. He hurt his elbow playing rugby and didn’t tell his parents about it.
Because he didn’t get medical help, his right arm was half a foot shorter than his left, was very twisted, and hurt him a lot for the rest of his life.
He was aloof, furious, and unhappy with both his teammates and supporters. He stayed to himself and had what we would now call depression or anxiety.
He was afraid of losing his job, so he kept injuries to himself and discreetly dealt with various elbow issues, appendicitis, a collapsed lung, serious hand difficulties, a fractured foot, and too many wounds to count.
He had a permanently bent back and burst discs because he played in an abnormally low crouch. This meant that he could only sleep for 2 or 3 hours at a time.
Sawchuk couldn’t handle all of this and started drinking a lot. His life outside of hockey was usually a complete mess.
In the Sawchuk house, alcoholism and domestic abuse were the norm.
He had a lot of relationships and even got a lady pregnant outside of his marriage. His wife finally divorced him.
Sawchuk died after getting into a drunken fight with his teammate Ron Stewart over their shared phone bill.
He fell and hurt his liver. He died in the hospital after having his gallbladder removed and after doctors tried but failed to stem the bleeding from his liver.
Now let’s talk about the masks. In the past, coaches thought that a mask would make it harder for a goaltender to see the field, yet they would wear them in practice.
They thought that goalies should be brave and not afraid of the puck. Also, players in the league had a macho attitude (they didn’t want to look weak, hurt, or “scared”).
When sticks started to curve, masks became necessary. Players couldn’t obtain much speed or lift with flat sticks, so masks weren’t as important.
Also, the regulations said that goalies couldn’t go down on their knees. Back then, the butterfly style you see now was against the law. Jacques Plante was the first NHL goalie to wear a mask, but he had to ask for a long time before he could.
He couldn’t wear it until he got shot in the nose, which required 45 minutes to sew up.
At this point, he told his coach that he could either let him keep practicing with his mask on or lose the best goaltender. He put on his mask.
(Photo credit: LIFE Magazine).
No Comments